Lorimer Lecture
by Leandra Nessel
Mrs. Huldah Cail Lorimer Mingledorff
In 1997, Mrs. Huldah Cail Lorimer Mingledorff (BSPE, `33), a native of Screven County, Georgia, donated the bulk of her former father-in-law’s personal library to the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection was important because her former father-in-law was George Horace Lorimer, the Editor-in-Chief of the Saturday Evening Post from 1899 to 1936. George Horace Lorimer has been credited with reviving the failing magazine by improving the quality of writing in the Post by soliciting work from some of the greatest writers of the day.
Fortunately for the Libraries, much of Lorimer’s correspondence was saved and Mrs. Mingledorff also donated his personal papers from his Saturday Evening Post years, as well as his extensive library. This comprehensive collection of correspondence includes more than 5,000 letters from authors, politicians, and dignitaries, such as President Calvin Coolidge, Norman Rockwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rose Kennedy, and John Philip Sousa.
L to R: Terence Monmaney, Executive Editor of Smithsonian magazine; Mackenzie Haring and Leandra Nessel from the Libraries' development office.
Because she understood the need to preserve print media Mrs. Mingledorff established an endowment to create and support the George Horace Lorimer Center for Print Media. This generous gift also established the Mingledorff-Lorimer Lecture in Print Media.
Held every other year, the lecture series has been successful in bringing to campus some of the biggest names in print media. Invited speakers have included Richard B. Stolley, author of Life: Our Century in Pictures; Tom DeFrank, Washington Bureau Chief for The New York Daily News; and John Huey, Editorial Director of Time, Inc.
In March of 2007, with the help of Dean E. Culpepper Clark of the Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communications, the Libraries welcomed Terence Monmaney, Executive Editor of Smithsonian magazine.
With a writing background that includes stints at the Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker, Mr. Monmaney addressed what he termed “the magazine crisis” in modern media. He spoke of the difficulties magazines face in the rising costs of publication and how they stay relevant in this current electronic world. He said hopes that ultimately the desire to see the written word on the page will enable magazines to survive.
Read more about Mrs. Lorimer Mingledorff and learn about the endowment named for her.
